Comments | winkingstar: You're always saying goodbye

winkingstar

You're always saying goodbye

Oct 20, 2007 22:57

Last night, I finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Um.

It was a very interesting reading experience.

( Cut for possibly spoilerish rambling, even though I suspect I'm the only one on my f-list who hadn't read it yet (aside from the people who don't want to) )

me, books, vampires

Comments 10

lacontessa11 October 21 2007, 06:50:53 UTC

Thank you for having some issues with it . . . so many people think this series is perfect that I'm nervous about voicing my problems. Mine are different than yours, though (I'm so SICK of the girl always choosing the vampire. It's so cliched, and I've never even found it particularly realistic). I'm just not an Edward fangirl, unlike everyone else in the world . . . the older I get, the less I want to be with someone who will either 1, stay young and beautiful while I age or 2. require that I too become a vampire, which I have no desire to do. Drink blood and live forever? No thanks. Besides, Jacob is right there, being drop dead sexy *swoon ( ... )

winkingstar October 21 2007, 19:39:56 UTC

*lol* No problem. You were one of the people I'd heard dubious things from, but there was someone else who wasn't entirely enamored as well. So we're not entirely alone. Just vastly in the minority.

Yeah, Edward, as I said, is rather "meh" for me. Aside from the fact that I have a bad association with him, he's just too perfect. Perfect is boring. And as for vampire appeal, I don't feel it either. The vampires I like (Spike from Buffy, Mick from Moonlight) are fantastic characters who happen to be vampires, so it's not the vampireness I like.

Yay for smut-free books! XD

I don't think I'll read the Morganville Vampires books. I have a very low freak factor. =O

hikaru_daydream October 21 2007, 20:37:24 UTC

so many people think this series is perfect that I'm nervous about voicing my problems
Don't ever worry about voicing your opinions with me~~~!

I'm just not an Edward fangirl, unlike everyone else in the world . . . the older I get, the less I want to be with someone who will either 1, stay young and beautiful while I age or 2. require that I too become a vampire, which I have no desire to do. Drink blood and live forever? No thanks.
Um... Heh heh heh... ^^; My vampire!love is strong and fanatical. FEAR ME.

:cough:

At least we agree on the greatness of the series on the point of it's lack of smut! You have no idea how happy I was to find a vampire book without smut... ;__; So happy!!!!!

lacontessa11 October 22 2007, 05:14:00 UTC

LOL! I used to love vampires like that. My screenname, la Contessa, is actually short for la Contessa di Salvatore, which would be my title if I married my middle school vampiric crush *lol* You would appreciate L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries quartet, by the way (they just re-released the first two books in an omnibus edition). I don't know what happened to me . . . I think it's because I dated a guy who was "dark and mysterious" like that and he was NOT teh good boyfriend. I still love Damon Salvatore, though . . . he's the only man I'd leave Josh for *l* Okay, I wouldn't actually leave him for anyone, but it would be close ;)

I read YA fiction for the PURPOSE of avoiding the smut--I feel like if your book is full of that sort of thing, you know there's nothing else there to draw people in (like, I don't know . . . PLOT?). With very few exceptions, it's a mark of mediocre to bad writing for me.

hikaru_daydream October 21 2007, 20:25:43 UTC

(;_; I had a fantastic reply all typed out and then Firefox decided to choose THAT MOMENT to spaz out on me!! :sobs:)

The gist of it was this: It's perfectly fine with me that you don't LOVE Twilight. :nodnod: It's not like I'm going to bite you or anything... :gigglesnort:

Personally I ♥ Edward, but I do understand/agree with your point about him being too perfect. (Heaven knows I love my men to have flaws! Severus Snape anyone???) But as far as literary!vampires go Edward is a great love of mine. *_*

Mick, however, wins overall. His eyes, his smile, his hair, his sweet/unsure nature... WIN! :snuggles him:

(:stakes Firefox for erasing my original comment:)

winkingstar October 22 2007, 02:23:00 UTC

=( I've never had Firefox spaz on me, but sometimes LJ eats my lovely well-thought out comments/posts. And it is most vexing. *huggles*

^____^ I'm so happy you love me anyway. I like having friends who understand the concept of different opinions. *more huggles* ♥

Mick, however, wins overall. His eyes, his smile, his hair, his sweet/unsure nature... WIN!

OMG, the sweet/unsure nature ... totally melts my heart. ♥ (Along with the attractive package, of course. XD)

valancy_s October 21 2007, 20:50:10 UTC

There's a line from one of L.M. Montgomery's short stories that I always think of - "Women never like a paragon." Given Edward Cullen's popularity it's clear that's not universally true, but it's true of me! His perfection bores me to tears. Bella is enjoyable, but like you I wished her interest in Edward was something more grounded than slavish adoration.

In my two-part review of the book I made a similar remark on the redundant descriptions of vampiric beauty and exactly the same critique of the pacing of the book. So don't feel you're alone in your opinion of the book! (We're just vastly outnumbered.)

You know what I find funny? That that girl from A Series of Unfortunate Events has found astronomical internet fame - but just as Bella Swan's image, thanks to a random remark from Stephanie Meyer. I wonder how she feels about it.

winkingstar October 22 2007, 02:34:16 UTC

Hee, I love your comparison of Twilight to one of Catherine Morland's Gothic novels, that's perfect. :) And I, too, loved that Bella's favourite book is a Jane Austen compilation. I liked her from the beginning, but when she pulled out the Austen for comfort reading, that totally sealed my affection for her.

And yay for someone else who found flaws in the book. We may be vastly outnumbered, but at least we're not entirely alone. :)

That girl from A Series of Unfortunate Events has found astronomical internet fame - but just as Bella Swan's image, thanks to a random remark from Stephanie Meyer. I wonder how she feels about it.

That is funny. The power of the internet.... I always wonder what authors/actors/etc. think about how crazy some of the fandoms get.

lacontessa11 October 22 2007, 05:24:06 UTC

There's a line from one of L.M. Montgomery's short stories that I always think of - "Women never like a paragon." Given Edward Cullen's popularity it's clear that's not universally true, but it's true of me!I think it's because he's fictional and they don't actually have to deal with the (more realistic) feelings of inadequacy. I would have LOVED Edward in high school, but I later met someone who seemed to be perfect like that, and it made me feel constantly insecure. My opinion about men changed immediately ( ... )

winkingstar October 23 2007, 00:53:47 UTC

Ooh, vampire morality provides for fascinating discussion. valancy_s and I discussed that a bit a couple weeks ago (and, in fact, the discussion led to me attempting to squeeze some time out of my schedule for vampire research [because I'm a hopeless academic dork]). It's interesting to see how the "default" vampire morals are different between stories.

For instance, in Buffy, the vampires were bad by default (hence the Slayer) and the good vampires were only good through trickery (Angel because of the curse; Spike because of the chip, though later he decides to go get his soul which makes things a bit sticky). Whereas in Moonlight, a new vampire show valancy_s and I are addicted to, the vampires seem to have a choice about their morality; most of them are bad (or at least have rather loose morals), but the hero has chosen to be good (before the mortal love interest was involved), which implies there is a choice.

For some reason, I hadn't thought of the vampires in Twilight that way, so thanks for bringing that up. Yet another story to add to the ( ... )